You're Different
by sexierthanthetardis
Summary: High school AU. After a fire takes the lives of his parents, Castiel refuses to speak at all; unless it's to Dean. Destiel.


The Winchesters and the Novaks have lived across the street from each other since before any of the kids were born. Sam and Dean grew up playing with their friends Castiel, Anna, Michael, Gabriel, and Lucifer every day. The Novaks had a pool in their back yard and the Winchesters had the most amazing play set ever. The children used to call their own little playground. For years, the children were all inseparable; even despite their age differences. Then when Dean and Castiel were ten, the accident happened. No one ever found out how the fire started; all they knew was that by the time the fire department got there, it was too late to save Chuck, Becky, and Lucifer. After it was over, Michael, who was 18 at the time, decided that they should move in with their grandparents who lived on the other side of town. After they moved, the Novaks and the Winchester children didn't play as much anymore. By the time they reached high school, almost all of them had drifted apart; treating each other like distant acquaintances rather than friends. That is with the exception, of course, of Dean and Castiel. Cas practically refused to speak after the accident. Even his siblings could only manage to get a small head nod out of him every now and then. The only person who was an exception to Castiel's apparent mutism was Dean. Whenever the pair were alone, Cas would speak like he had never went silent in the first place. Sometimes Dean would ask him why he never spoke to anyone else, and Cas would simply reply that Dean was different, like it was every answer in the world. "But what does that mean?" Dena asked, flopping next to Cas on his bed. "It means that you're different," Cas repeated, speaking in his extremely quiet voice that he developed after the fire. Dean sighed. He wanted to press the issue, but he knew that the question made his friend uncomfortable. Dean started having feelings for his friend about six years ago, around when the fire happened, and he didn't want to push him away. "So what do you wanna do?" "Homework?" Dean made a noise similar to that of a dying whale. Cas had almost perfect grades and Dean pretty much did the bare minimum to pass. "Fine. You owe me now, though." The boys spent the next half hour working on their French assignment. They had to write about their best friend, an assignment they had done multiple times, but using much higher level vocabulary now that they were in their 4th year. It was an easy assignment for Cas, who has been fluent in French since he was six; but almost impossible for Dean, who could speak about as well as the average French three year old. "This is impossible," Dean said, staring accusingly at his one paragraph he had written, "will you please write mine for me?" "You'll never learn if I do it for you," Cas replied, putting down his pen and completed three page paper. "How that fuck do you do that?" Dean asked. "It's not that hard." "Can I at least look at yours? You know, to give myself some ideas?" "Sure," Cas said, handing his friend the papers, "But you probably won't understand it, and Madame Krista will know if you're cheating." Dean grabbed the pages anyways. After spending enough time at Castiel's house, he could understand most of the French he read. Most people *cough* Sam *cough* said that was ridiculous, but it was true. However, he started to doubt that when he read through Cas's papers. From the way it looked like Cas was describing him, his friends feelings for him were a lot more than platonic. "Hey Cas," Dean said, turning slightly pink, "What does this translate to?" Cas looked at the part Dean was pointing to and, after blushing slightly, didn't answer; which was enough of an answer for Dean. Dean moved closer to his friend and, before he lost his nerve, placed a small peck on his friends cheek. "The feeling is mutual." Cas turned a bright red as a small smile played across his lips. 


End file.
